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By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Electronics Newsweekly -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews journalists, a patent by the inventors Kim, Mi-young (Hwaseong-si, KR); Porov, Anton Victorovich (St. Petersburg, RU); Oh, Eun-mi (Seoul, KR), filed on November 7, 2016, was published online on September 26, 2017.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 9773502, is SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. (Suwon-si, KR).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "Apparatuses, devices, and articles of manufacture consistent with the present disclosure relate to audio encoding and decoding, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for efficiently allocating bits to a perceptively important frequency area based on sub-bands, an audio encoding method and apparatus, an audio decoding method and apparatus, a recording medium and a multimedia device employing the same.

"When an audio signal is encoded or decoded, it is required to efficiently use a limited number of bits to restore an audio signal having the best sound quality in a range of the limited number of bits. In particular, at a low bit rate, a technique of encoding and decoding an audio signal is required to evenly allocate bits to perceptively important spectral components instead of concentrating the bits to a specific frequency area.

"In particular, at a low bit rate, when encoding is performed with bits allocated to each frequency band such as a sub-band, a spectral hole may be generated due to a frequency component, which is not encoded because of an insufficient number of bits, thereby resulting in a decrease in sound quality."

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, VerticalNews editors also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent: "It is an aspect to provide a method and apparatus for efficiently allocating bits to a perceptively important frequency area based on sub-bands, an audio encoding method and apparatus, an audio decoding method and apparatus, a recording medium and a multimedia device employing the same.

"It is an aspect to provide a method and apparatus for efficiently allocating bits to a perceptively important frequency area with a low complexity based on sub-bands, an audio encoding method and apparatus, an audio decoding method and apparatus, a recording medium and a multimedia device employing the same.

"According to an aspect of one or more exemplary embodiments, there is provided a bit allocating method comprising: determining the allocated number of bits in decimal point units based on each frequency band so that a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of a spectrum existing in a predetermined frequency band is maximized within a range of the allowable number of bits for a given frame; and adjusting the allocated number of bits based on each frequency band.

"According to another aspect of one or more exemplary embodiments, there is provided a bit allocating apparatus comprising: a transform unit that transforms an audio signal in a time domain to an audio spectrum in a frequency domain; and a bit allocating unit that estimates the allowable number of bits in decimal point units by using a masking threshold based on frequency bands included in a given frame in the audio spectrum, estimates the allocated number of bits in decimal point units by using spectral energy, and adjusts the allocated number of bits not to exceed the allowable number of bits.

"According to another aspect of one or more exemplary embodiments, there is provided an audio encoding apparatus comprising: a transform unit that transforms an audio signal in a time domain to an audio spectrum in a frequency domain; a bit allocating unit that determines the allocated number of bits in decimal point units based on each frequency band so that a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of a spectrum existing in a predetermined frequency band is maximized within a range of the allowable number of bits for a given frame of the audio spectrum and adjusts the allocated number of bits determined based on each frequency band; and an encoding unit that encodes the audio spectrum by using the number of bits adjusted based on each frequency band and spectral energy.

"According to another aspect of one or more exemplary embodiments, there is provided an audio decoding apparatus comprising: a transform unit that transforms an audio signal in a time domain to an audio spectrum in a frequency domain; a bit allocating unit that determines the allocated number of bits in decimal point units based on each frequency band so that a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of a spectrum existing in a predetermined frequency band is maximized within a range of the allowable number of bits for a given frame of the audio spectrum and adjusts the allocated number of bits determined based on each frequency band; and an encoding unit that encodes the audio spectrum by using the number of bits adjusted based on each frequency band and spectral energy.

"According to another aspect of one or more exemplary embodiments, there is provided an audio decoding apparatus comprising: a bit allocating unit that estimates the allowable number of bits in decimal point units by using a masking threshold based on frequency bands included in a given frame, estimates the allocated number of bits in decimal point units by using spectral energy, and adjusts the allocated number of bits not to exceed the allowable number of bits; a decoding unit that decodes an audio spectrum included in a bitstream by using the number of bits adjusted based on each frequency band and spectral energy; and an inverse transform unit that transforms the decoded audio spectrum to an audio signal in a time domain."

For more information, see this patent: Kim, Mi-young; Porov, Anton Victorovich; Oh, Eun-mi. Bit Allocating, Audio Encoding and Decoding. U.S. Patent Number 9773502, filed November 7, 2016, and published online on September 26, 2017. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=9773502.PN.&OS=PN/9773502RS=PN/9773502

Keywords for this news article include: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO. LTD.

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